REANIMAL Hands-On Preview and Impressions – REANIMAL is a game that comes hotly anticipated off of the back of several successful games under a different publisher, and appears to be the result of a team who have found their creative stride in what they’re setting out to create. My time with the demo highlighted the distinct differences that lie between this new frontier and the past, but also highlighted some familiar elements that should absolutely prove tempting for fans of Tarsier Studios’ previous outings.
One thing is for sure, my opening impression of REANIMAL is that this will be a game that channels the most grim and gross parts of their previous work to make for a uniquely communal and tactile horror that will urge to bring a friend along for the horrific ride.
REANIMAL Hands-On Preview and Impressions
Catching the Gossip
During my hands-on session with an early portion of REANIMAL, I was lucky enough to share the couch with some core members of the studio, including Andreas Johnsson and Dave Mervik. During my 30 minutes, I got a fascinating insight into just how this new frontier for Tarsier Studios draws on their known strengths, while pushing into some new territory.
Most prominently, the core of REANIMAL is built around the cooperation of two players to achieve a single goal. I asked a little bit about this during our session, and I was excited to learn that this new game has been built with both single-player and multiplayer in mind, for an experience that feels uncompromised regardless of how you play it.
Johnsson explained this in terms of watching a horror film with a friend; the experience of watching a horror film by yourself as opposed to sharing the couch with a friend is almost totally transformative, and he wanted to give players the option to choose their own experience. Particularly, the inherent comfort that comes with sharing the experience versus the isolating fear of being alone.
Neither one is seen as “preferred.” Johnsson told me that the decision to opt for a co-op adventure very much came from stories of people playing the original Little Nightmares together as a group of friends, and the fun that comes out of sharing that experience.
Into The Dark
With this insight in mind, we set off into the world of REANIMAL, and I immediately saw just where the experience of games past has come into this one. For anyone who has played Little Nightmares or Little Nightmares 2, you’ll feel immediately at home (or as at home as you can in this horrific nightmare) as you take control of two siblings, thrust into a dangerous location with the mission of finding their friends.
I wasn’t given much more context to the main story, but there were plenty of tantalising tidbits to mull on as I slowly worked my way through an abandoned factory with weird snake-like husks trying to chase after us.
I was impressed by how much more dynamic this game felt when compared to the work of Tarsier’s previous work, and just how much there was to explore in the few environments I saw, even during the early portion of this demo. In particular, there were plenty of hidden nooks to find, with one having Dave tell me that there was a particular meaning here that would only become apparent after learning more about the story.
It seems that there are a lot of details in this demo that will remain unexplained until I get a better taste of the game as a whole, but the spectacle on show was commendable. This has been enhanced with the addition of collaborative exploration and puzzle solving, with one of us having to go on ahead to hold a button down to let the other progress. If one of you dies, both of you restart at a checkpoint, so you’re encouraged to cooperate and help each other where you can.
The Tip of The Iceberg
Just before I came to the end of my time with REANIMAL, I was briefly acquainted with one of the monsters that is chasing the siblings throughout. A clumsy, hulking beast that seemingly could end up wherever I was, we were tasked with running away from the creature at speed.
This once again felt like slipping back into the most horrific pair of shoes that I’ve ever worn, with an emphasis on looking ahed and making sure you jump and climb in the right places before you get taken away and forced to restart.
Interestingly, I found that neither player character actually could interfere with the other during these moments, meaning that there wasn’t potential for me to accidentally trip up my partner and forcing us both to restart. While Johnsson was eager to point out that this was primarily for gamefeel and to ensure that cooperative partners dont end up accidentally frustrating each other.
I left this preview feeling massively impressed; REANIMAL leaves me with the impression that it deftly balances the demands of a fully cooperative game against the legacy of Tarsier’s previous work, with an emphasis on gritty, gruesome body horror being at the fore here. I didn’t get too much of a taste of some of the surely freaky stuff hidden within (although I did see a particularly unnerving statuette of a pig in the preview booth), but I’m sure that and more is just hiding around the corner.
REANIMAL left me feeling very positive about the future of Tarsier Studio as they develop a new IP, separate from their previous work, and it seems like the creative stride that has seen them succeed thus far is still very much in play here.
REANIMAL launches for PlayStation 5 in Q1 2026.